In the center of the galaxy discovered giant bubbles of energy

11/11/2010

At the center of our galaxy there is something mysterious and mysterious - even astronomers can not yet explain it.

A group of scientists working with the information obtained cosmic gamma-ray telescope Fermi announced that they had discovered two bubbles spewing energy in the center of the Milky Way. At the press conference and in a paper to be published in the Journal of The Astrophysical Journal, they are told that the size of the bubbles is 25 000 light-years, and their energy equivalent to 100,000 supernova explosions of stars.

"They are great," - said Doug Finkbeiner of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who led the team that made the discovery.

The source of bubbles is a mystery. Perhaps they arise as a consequence of the wave of births and deaths of stars in the galaxy’s center. According to another theory, this giant outburst of the black hole, which, like Jabba the Hutt from Star Wars, is located in the center of the Milky Way. While it is known that it is not dark matter - a mysterious something that makes up a quarter of the universe and galaxies that prevents decay.

This discovery struck David Spergela, a Princeton astrophysicist who participated in this work.

"And we still think that know a lot about our own galaxy," - said Dr. Spergel, noticing, we found them just now, though the size of the bubbles almost reaches the size of the galaxy itself.

Jon Morse, head of astrophysics at NASA, said: "This shows again that the universe is full of surprises."

One of the ones that struck most of all was Dr. Finkbeiner. A year ago he was in the band, which was led by Gregory Dobler of the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, California. Then they were able to discern the mysterious fog of high energy particles in the center of the Milky Way. Particles manifested themselves in the form of surplus energy remaining after taking into account all the known sources of gamma rays (electromagnetic waves with the highest energy) from the data obtained by the Fermi telescope.

At that time, Dr. Finkbeiner and his colleagues believed that the source of this fog was dark matter. Center of the galaxy is home to a variety of mysterious high-energy phenomena, including a gigantic black hole and rotating at a dizzying speed of pulsars. According to cosmological theory, the collision of particles of dark matter, which is concentrated there, it can produce a flux of gamma-rays.

But in the course of the analysis, the fog was larger than expected by Dr. Finkbeiner and his colleagues, and besides, he has clear boundaries, like a bubble. Dark matter, according to the dominant theory, should be more scattered.

"Dark matter is there are billions of years" - said Dr. Finkbeiner. "If something is to be here for billions of years, it is difficult to expect clear boundaries."

He and other researchers explained that this does not mean that the dark matter in the center of the galaxy is not, but rather that it would be difficult to see. Want to be the first to know about the most important - free news ticker, be the first.